The day I believed in Murphy

This was the day I truly believed in 'Murphy's law'. For the uniniated, Murphy's law is an adage that states 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong'. Let me begin with the man's thing. It was 5.30 in the morning and I had a train to catch in the next two hours for a meeting at Boston. That is when it dawned on me that I had run out of use-and-throw razors. I feverishly scrambled the closet to find an old one and made a desperate attempt to make myself 'presentable'. Result: I fell marginally short of Macaulay Culkin's scream in the movie, Home Alone 1. Lesson - Don't use the after-shave when you are using old razors.

The limo was on time. And so was the traffic jam. To top it, they shut one of the routes at the Lincoln Tunnel - the underwater tunnel that links New Jersey to New York City. I asked the driver if that was usual. The driver indeed appeared smart. He politely explained that drivers in NJ, in the name of beating the rush-hour traffic, make 6.30 AM the rush hour. He also suggested that I board at Newark instead of New York. Result - I had to skip breakfast and make a dash into the Penn station to catch the train. Lesson - If you want to go to New York City, take the bus. They have dedicated lanes during the rush hour.

The train started on time. I walked the entire train twice to figure where my colleague, who boarded in the previous station, was sitting. Only to realize that I walked right past him both the times. Finally, I caught up with him. Lesson - Using your phone when you are looking for some inside the train does not work. Especially, if the departure gate is well below the ground.

The good thing about Acela Express (The Amtrak train I was in) was that it had wireless Internet connectivity. And we could prepare for the meeting. Or so we thought. By the time we reached Connecticut, the train stopped not only for select stations, but also for flood on the tracks and then later for problems with air-conditioning. We had to switch trains in between at the New London station. This time, the train did not have connectivity. To make it worse, this one stopped too for flooding near Westerly, Rhode Island. The difference this time was that we found out that the train will not go any further. To top it, the power conked off, food and water ran out in the train, and it started getting stuffy inside the train. It didn't bother other folks as the train still doled out alchohol.

The black berry I had, came handy immediately. I searched for cabs in the nearest station only to find that it would cost $300 and 2 plus hours to reach Boston. In other words, I am not going to make it to the meeting on time. Result: We went back to NY in the same train, had to skip lunch, and tried attending the meeting over phone. Lesson – If you can fly, don’t take the train.

Exhausted I came back home late that night only to realize that I was travelling all day without getting anywhere, skipping food, and attending a meeting over a patchy phone connection. And why should I not believe in Murphy's law?